Search

Saturday, May 12, 2007

5. If mankind could but see though in a glimpse of fleeting experience what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all & never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust & scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature, to forbid the turning away of our feet from her ordinary pastures.

(Thoughts and Aphorisms : Sri Aurobindo)

This evolution of ours — the human evolution — is but an animal evolution. Man is defined as a rational animal, though mostly and most of the time, human beings are more or less found to be irrational or infra-rational.

Humans, or human beings, are bipedal apes belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for "wise man" or "knowing man") under the family Hominidae (known as the great apes). [Wikipedia Encyclopedia]

And Man appears to be bound to this animal evolution, to this half-animal, half-conscious being.. He is born, and then after spending some time, he dies. The Mother says : “And … in the final analysis, the destiny of each individual is the same : you are born, you live — more or less satisfactorily — and you die; then you wait for a certain length of time, and again you are born, you live — more or less satisfactorily — and again you die, and so on indefinitely, until you have enough of it.”

In spite of all agonies, woes and sufferings, all difficulties, disturbances, diseases and death, all shortcomings and imperfections, all divisions, strife, battles and wars, all hatred, cruelty and homicide, Man is glued to this sort of half-animal sorrowful existence, closing his eyes and brain and heart, his visions and understanding and knowledge, his aspirations and thoughts and unwilling to see or try beyond it.

Leaders of the humanity — though very few they are — have tried to inspire and lead humanity beyond the situation, but the progress of mankind is too slow to go beyond.

Nature — or rather Supernature — wants Man to transcend the situation, but she wants in a different way, in her own Way. Man has to transcend himself and progress ahead in the New Evolution, the Next Evolution. beyond this animal evolution.

Sri Aurobindo says that these treasures of Joy, Force, Light and Peace have not yet been conquered in the present animal evolution of the human beings.

But if any human being happens to have the glimpse of these treasures of enjoyments and forces and spontaneous knowledge and calm and peace, then they would forsake everything and never take rest, so that they attain these treasures.

In this regard, the Mother says, ‘… if you had a total vision, however brief, you would not be able to resist the temptation of making the effort to realize it. But in fact, the total vision is exceptional, and that is why Sri Aurobindo says to us : ' "If mankind only…" '

OOOO

The Way is narrow, says Sri Aurobindo. The door is very hard, very difficult to be opened. And there are the guards of Nature : fear, distrust and scepticism. If one conquers all these obstructions from Nature, then only the glimpse is possible and effective.

The Mother says that only then, those who are ready, who are undoubtedly meant for the Realization, will have the great glimpse of the total vision of what is there beyond this animal evolution of the human beings. But these three obstacles of fear, distrust and scepticism has to be conquered. Men are fearful of leaving this present ‘rut’ of the ‘animal evolution’ — mainly because he does not know anything better and safer than and anything beyond this ‘rut’, which is also so woeful and sorrowful to him.

The Mother asks : “The fear of what? Fear of coming out of the rut? Fear of being free? Fear of no longer being a prisoner?”

The Mother also speaks about the people questioning the invaluable treasures of the higher existence and evolution: “…then you become wary, you wonder if it is reasonable, if it is true, if all that is not an illusion, if you are not just imagining things, if there is really any substance to it………”

These obstacles of fear, distrust and skepticism, of fearful doubt and mistrust, rooted in the animal aspect of our being, stand in the way. Once conquered, there will be Infinite Joy and Force and Light and Peace.

Regarding conquering these obstacles, the Mother further says:“But I repeat, it is not fine to sit one fine day, watch yourself be, and struggle with these things inside you once for and all. You have to do it and do it again and again and continue in a way which seems almost endless, to be sure that you have got rid of it all. In reality, you are perhaps never truly rid of it, but there comes a time when inside yourself, you are so different that you can no longer be touched by these things.”

Further She says that a time comes, “when the Light is so strong that all darkness vanishes.”

In order to conquer these obstacles, this is the endeavour, the tapasyā, the sādhanā that is needed. After the endeavour is successful, the door is open and we enter the new vistas, where we begin the New Evolution.

As Sri Aurobindo has said in ‘The Mother’ (Chapter—2), the Divine is the Sādhaka and the Sādhanā. But He also says : “But so long as the lower nature is active, the personal effort of the Sādhaka remains necessary.” And as we are more or less acquainted with it, He further says : “The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender.”

Insofar as rejection is concerned, we are required to reject not only mind’s ideas and other shortcomings thereof, or the vital nature’s desires and demands or other movements, but also we shall have to endeavour for the “rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine…”

Thus, fear, distrust and scepticism have to go.

The Mother finally says :“… I wish that you may all have these experiences yourselves. And for that faith, confidence, much humaneness and great goodwill are needed.

Barindranath Chaki

Interested mainly in the Adventure of Consciousness, I believe in human progress and evolution and in the inner capacity of Man to outgrow and master all his imperfections and darkness, to grow into a creative and constructive divine being, along with the society, conquering all inner and outer darkness, crossing all barriers and divisions.
I am a retired Officer of the Orissa Administrative Service from Orissa, India. Since adolescence, I was inspired by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Mira Alfassa) and sought to understand and follow Their Teaching, and make others understand and follow Them. In 1956, I read The Life Divine, and gradually, read almost all that is written by Them and about Them. I have visited the Ashram and Auroville some times. I organized some Sri Aurobindo centres in Orissa, and often met Prapatti and Ramkrishna Das. I and my wife and children had a special Darshan of The Mother on my birthday on 3rd March 1972.
Mira Aditi Centre has published my Bengali translations of some books including Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness by Satprem, India's Rebirth and India the Mother, collections from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.